Page 99 of The CEO I Hate

Best of all, I knew he’d made the offer because he valued my writing, not my body.

“Thanks, Lyle,” I said, surprised. “I really appreciate that. It was definitely a learning experience.” For betterandworse. “Guess maybe I’ll see you around?”

“You just might,” he agreed.

I nodded and turned to pack up my notes and computer. Leaving the working relationship on that note felt pretty good. We’d been partners, and while the process hadn’t exactly been smooth sailing, we’d delivered on the job in the end. There was a lot to be proud of here.

“Text me later, Mia,” Jerome called on his way out the door. “About the Scarlet Parlor.”

“I will,” I said, heading out myself a few minutes later. I made my way through the building, Ash trotting after me. I passed the hall leading to Liam’s office, and I peered past Carl to Liam’s door. Itwas closed, and I couldn’t tell if he was inside or not. I kept walking.

Ash didn’t. He stopped at Liam’s hallway, padded over to the closed office door, and sat. Not whining, not barking. Just waiting, like he knew exactly who was behind it.

I carried on.

Whether he was there or not, what did it matter? Liam had made himself scarce since our breakup, not bothering to check in nearly as much on the writers’ room, which was probably for the best. I hadn’t told Jerome, Tanya, and Kait about Liam and me—but they had toldmethey’d known for a while.

Apparently, we hadn’t been as discreet as we’d thought, and Kait had seen us playing footsie under the table. And they had made it very clear they were on my side once they realized the relationship had come to an end. Tanya had gotten in the habit of staring at him like she was imagining how she’d dispose of his body. And if that didn’t scare Liam then he was a fool, because Tanya was the one who plotted most of our murder scenes, and that girl wascreative.

So no, I hadn’t seen much of Liam lately. And no doubt, that was for the best. There was nothing I needed to say to him. Not even that I missed him. Because what did it matter if my heart sped up at the thought of seeing him? Nothing changed the fact that loving him was too hard, too painful, when I couldn’t count on his love in return.

This—finishing up withEnd in Fire, saying goodbye to the writers’ room, parting ways with VeriTV—was all for the best.

I hadn’t planned on celebrating alone tonight, but I found myself at the Scarlet Parlor anyway.One drink, I told myself. One drink would be enough to unwind and congratulate myself on a job well done.

And frankly, I just wanted some company. Someone to fill the Liam-shaped hole in my chest. I was trying not to weigh Jake down with my breakup woes since he was currently going through his own, so my best option was Sophie.

I walked across the club, waving her down on stage before taking a seat. It was early on a Wednesday, and the club was fairly quiet. She lifted her hand to acknowledge me, gave some orders to one of her dancers, then skipped down the steps and over to the bar.

She ordered a couple drinks from Ollie, then carried them over, setting a vodka cran in front of me.

“Here,” she said. “I considered just getting the whole bottle, but I wasn’t sure where you were on the post-breakup timeline. Are we getting blackout drunk yet?”

“Maybe this weekend,” I said. “I’ve got a couple writer friends who want to celebrate finishing the writing onEnd in Fire.”

“Oh, Mia,” she said, squeezing my hand. “You didn’t tell me you were wrapping up with that already.”

“I actually didn’t realize we were finishing up tonight. Sorta slipped my mind with everything.”

“Well, I’m happy to host. Tell your friends we’ll roll out the red carpet for them.”

“Jerome will love you for that,” I said. I sipped my drink. “But tonight, I’m being good.”

She snorted at me. “I’ll be the judge of that.” She held her hand out. “Give ’em here.”

“I mean it,” I said even as I handed over my keys. “One and done tonight.”

Sophie tucked the keys into her corset. “Doesn’t have to be. You have no reason to need to be up in the morning now, and the night is young.”

“It’s a Wednesday.”

“And you’re a free woman,” she pointed out. “You can do whatever you want.”

I rolled my eyes. “All I want to do is go to bed and get a proper night’s rest. I feel like I’ve spent every night this past week crying myself to sleep.”

“That’s how it starts, babe. Then we move on to drinking and sticking obscene things to his Porsche.”

I snorted.

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